Anilyia (24 page)

“Can we, Vevin?” Liselle turned to him
hopefully.

With one look into her pretty, grey eyes, he
responded, “Yes, of course. We’ll do it right away.” He took her in
his arms and they did a happy, boat-riding dance.

Suddenly a holler came from the children,
followed immediately by crying. One of the boys was bleeding from
his nose and he came over with tears flowing down his face,
pointing at a girl who was following and telling him to shut up.
“Eva hit me!” he yelled through his tears. The girl looked to be
two years younger than him and a total terror.

“Pardon us,” Isobel said with a roll of her
eyes as the women walked over to handle the situation. The
companions left the women to deal with the tragedy and walked off
toward the Llaav River.

Enormous, multilevel inns bordered a park
between the avenue and the river. Each gaudily painted building had
gardens with statues and fountains in front. Behind were docks with
boats for taking passengers out onto the river. The floor of the
enormous cavern gradually sloped downward toward the inns, allowing
the party to see for miles. People teemed along the avenue.

Sir Danth led them through the park to the
riverside. There was a small retaining wall along the river below
and a low-railed fence to keep people from accidentally falling in.
The river swarmed with boats carrying passengers up and down the
waterway.

To the right, the park continued up to a
twenty-foot tall iron fence spanning across the river and avenues
on either side. Eight Rojuun guards stood in front of a pair of
golden colored gates, ready to turn away anyone who didn’t belong.
They didn’t have much to do because nobody came near.

The companions could see the fortress on an
island that butted up against the cavern wall. Another river flowed
into the Llaav, joining in front of the fortress to separate it
from the rest of the city. Downriver was a mammoth opening in the
opposite cavern wall where boats traveled into the next cave,
taking their passengers to the beaches of the lake.

Liselle came up beside Tathan as he studied
the four bridges crossing the river downstream. “You can see all
the way to the bottom,” she remarked in awe. Tathan looked down
over the railing and saw hundreds of bright fish swimming. Liselle
was right; the bottom of the deep river was visible in the
perfectly clear water. Glowing plants lined the riverbed, but it
was hard to see most of them because there were so many fish.

“I do not believe those are all fish.” Sir
Danth said in confusion. “That green one with the lavender wings is
a daliit like the one that landed on my gauntlet in Garrrn Cavern.”
In addition to various birds, there were other animals. They
recognized a large herbivore floating along with the tide. The
Rojuun often used them for food, much as humans used cattle.

“Oh yes. Almost everything underground has
gills and can swim or walk underwater,” Vevin said.

“How do you know that?” Tathan asked.

“Everyone knows that.” When Vevin saw they
were frowning at him as though they didn’t understand, he
explained. “They mentioned it in Jarrrn Caverns and a lot of people
have been talking about it since we’ve been traveling on the Cavern
Road. Haven’t you been listening?”

They looked at each other and then back at
Vevin, shaking their heads at the same time. “Oh! It’s very
interesting,” he said. He went from doing his quiet ‘looking at
things dance’ to doing an ‘I’m going to describe something really
neat shuffle’. Tathan had privately labeled at least a hundred
different variations of Vevin’s dances and filed them away in the
back of his mind.

Vevin gestured as he spoke. “The majority of
underground areas aren’t connected to each other by anything except
rivers, lakes and underground oceans. The Rojuun build some
tunnels, as do various creatures, but if you want to visit most
underground places, you have to be able to breathe underwater.”

“You learned all that by listening to random
conversations, Master Vevin?” Sir Danth asked, obviously impressed.
“I thought you were tuning out everything but talk about the
princess.”

“Oh no. I can listen to lots of things at
once. Now I prioritize them by what I want to hear most,” Vevin
said with a big smile. “First is anything related to treasure,
second is pebbles, third is flowers; because it’s important to
Liselle, fourth is keys, fifth is carnivorous fairies, sixth is
animals; it used to be animals that were above ground, but now I
listen to information about underground animals too, seventh is
ears, eighth is . . .”

Sir Danth cut him off, “What number is the
princess?”

“She’s nineteenth,” Vevin responded with a
nod and sharp smile.

“Nineteenth? Shouldn’t she be more important
than pebbles?” Tathan asked in disbelief. “Why do you listen for
talk about pebbles anyway?”

“Not many people talk about them, so it’s
important to be vigilant,” Vevin replied seriously. “There are more
pebbles in the world than absolutely anything else, you know.”

“Umm . . . no. I didn’t know that,” Tathan
admitted. He wasn’t sure why it was important and didn’t really
want to know.

Sir Danth asked, “Why wouldn’t birds fly
instead of swimming?”

“Well that would just be silly,” Vevin
replied, rolling his eyes. “This obviously isn’t the cavern the
bird wants to fly in. It’s looking for a nicer cave with lots of
insects, isn’t that right little birdie,” he said, waving at a
swimming bird. The original daliit had disappeared far downriver by
that point.

“I see,” Sir Danth said, though it was
obvious he didn’t. “So, do you know why underground animals
glow?”

“Of course. It’s so they have light to see
by. Why else would they glow?” Vevin rolled his eyes again. The
liquid silver rippled in a circle.

“Ahh,” Sir Danth said, nodding. “That makes
complete sense.” Tathan and Liselle nodded too, after all, why else
would the creatures glow?

“Shall we take a boat ride?” Liselle asked
hopefully, pointing to a nearby dock with boats for hire.

“Oh yes! That sounds like fun! Let’s do it,
Tathan.” Vevin’s happy dance had new moves, which Tathan labeled as
the ‘let’s take a boat ride’ version.

“I don’t like boats or deep water.” Sir
Danth shook his head. “It’s a bad idea. A person could fall in and
be dragged along in the current. Plus, fish are slimy, even the
glowing ones.”

They stared at him for a moment.

He held his arms out. “Why are you looking
at me like that? It’s true that I can’t drown, but the armor would
still cause me to sink.” He banged his gauntlet on the chest-piece.
“And fish are evil, you know. They
seem
innocent, swimming
around down there, but they’re just waiting for someone to fall in
so they can sit on them and drown them. Mark my words.” He pointed
a finger at them.

“Umm . . . alright then,” Tathan responded
with a raised eyebrow. “I think we should find a room to stay in
first. You two,” he said, pointing at Vevin and Liselle, “can get a
boat ride afterward, hopefully finding out more information about
the fortress by asking other riders.” He pointed at Sir Danth, “You
can take a walk around land to see if you can find out anything
else. Meanwhile, I’ll try to figure out why we’re being
followed.”

They all looked around to see who was
following them. Tathan buried his face in his palms. “No, no, no,
no, no. You don’t look around when I say we’re being followed. It
gives away the fact that I know.” He put his hands on his hips
indignantly. “I can’t take you anywhere.”

Sir Danth put up a finger. “You didn’t tell
us not to look beforehand, Master Tathan. Therefore, you are
accountable for our actions in the matter.”

Tathan glared at the knight before throwing
his hands up in the air, turning around and stomping off toward the
inns. The rest of them exchanged looks, shrugged and followed.

Tathan had only caught glimpses of the
person following him, enough to know that it wasn’t the woman from
Puujan with the striking green eyes and giant squirrel named Steve.
He led the party down the street toward the inns. There was no way
he would ever pay a hundred gold pieces for a room. That was just
ridiculous. Everything was ridiculous down here.

Tathan realized he was becoming angry and
wanted to start swinging his sword at everything in sight. He took
a deep breath to calm himself. It wouldn’t do for that to happen
again. Tathan hated the dark thoughts that crossed his mind. Since
traveling with his cousin, life had seemed pleasant and good. It
was like an illusion though, a pleasant dream Tathan would have to
wake up from soon.

His eyes caught a girl, who must have been
about fourteen, leaning against a building across the avenue. She
had brown hair, a dirty complexion and wore a long, open cloak.
Underneath that was a frilly shirt, black trousers and a wicked
looking rapier.

He handed his expenses pouch to Sir Danth
and pointed at an inn bordering the park. “See if you can get a
room on the top floor facing the fortress. If it’s too expensive,
take whatever you can.”

The knight frowned. “I was under the
impression you wished to handle matters of money, Master
Tathan.”

“I have someone to go talk to,” Tathan
replied cryptically.

“Why not give the money to your cousin?” Sir
Danth asked, holding the pouch out to Liselle.

“Because, people don’t take money pouches
out of the hand of an armored knight with a big sword, but they do
take it from pretty young women,” Tathan explained, gesturing
toward Liselle.

“Nonetheless, I prefer to allow you or the
pretty young lady do the talking.” Sir Danth put the pouch in
Liselle’s hand. “I promise to use my big sword to hit anyone who
should attempt to take the pouch from the pretty young lady.”

Tathan sighed.

“You sigh a great deal, Master Tathan. Did
you know?” the knight replied, eliciting giggles from Liselle and
Vevin.

Tathan glared at him, sighed again and then
turned to go talk to the girl waiting across the avenue. She wasn’t
there. He paused to look around and saw her at the next
intersection on a side street. As soon as he noticed her, she
disappeared. It was obvious she was going to lead him somewhere,
possibly even a trap. Tathan grinned. Things had been too tame
lately and it was nice to see some danger.

He reached the road the girl had disappeared
down and saw her at the next intersection. She looked directly at
him and turned down another street. Tathan looked back at his
companions. They were watching him with curiosity. He gave them a
grin and followed the girl.

***

Tathan reached the next street. She was
leaning against a lamppost at another intersection, moving further
away from the river upon seeing him. Tathan didn’t run after her.
If she really wanted him to follow, she would keep waiting. He was
willing to set off a trap, not run into one at full speed.

A few zigzags later, he was back in the
Market District. More people filled the streets, walking between
shops and going about their business. The girl took time to move
through the throng. Occasionally, she would look back over her
shoulder to make sure Tathan was still following. She grabbed a
large blue fruit from a cart she walked by when the vendor wasn’t
paying attention. Tathan grabbed another and gave the vendor a
silver uun to pay for both. He didn’t mind stealing from people who
had more than they needed, but didn’t like stealing from honest
shopkeepers who worked to feed a family.

Before long, they were at the edge of the
Warehouse District near the eastern wall of the cavern. It
surprised Tathan as he had expected to go more toward the center of
town. There were hardly any people and the girl had taken a larger
lead again. Tathan was content to follow casually, keeping an eye
on his surroundings to see when others would show up. He knew the
girl wasn’t acting alone.

The shops on the left disappeared, making
way to small residences built for humans. Tathan could see the
distant towers of the fortress over the tops. The warehouses on the
right had very little activity, many seeming vacant. Some of the
din had died down, but there was an echo coming off the cavern
ceiling that curved to meet the ground a short distance ahead.

Tathan finished the tasty fruit and chucked
the core into a trashcan at the corner of an intersection. It was
odd to see them everywhere, unlike human cities where he would have
thrown it on the ground for dogs and rats to scavenge. Rojuun hated
trash and dirt in their territory, but the reason Tathan threw it
in that particular trashcan was to startle the man standing at the
corner watching Tathan.

He knew they were getting close to their
destination because that man was one of two watching him. The other
was on the roof of a warehouse just ahead, trying to hide. It would
have worked against most people, as few ever looked up, but Tathan
survived by being observant. They passed two more thugs along the
way, neither capable of giving him a challenge.

A wide strip of park lined the area where
the cavern wall met the ground. The girl went into a door in the
last warehouse near the park. It was unpainted like a few others
this far away from the center of town. Tathan assumed they didn’t
have owners.

The door was on the long side of the
warehouse. There were larger doors on the end that could easily fit
a wagon. Two heavyset thugs guarded the side door to prevent anyone
uninvited from entering. Tathan walked up and moved to turn the
knob.

One of the guards put a hand in front of
him. “Hey! Where do you think you’re going? Nobody gets in without
an invitation.”

Tathan raised an eyebrow. “I
have
been invited, didn’t you notice?”